THE WAY WAY BACK: Starring Liam James, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell and Alison Janney. Directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. Rated M (coarse language). 103 minutes.
Reviewed by Fr Peter Malone MSC
TROUBLES of a 14-year-old adolescent? Again? Well, yes. But this time in The Way Way Back the topic is more interestingly explored than usual – and with some nicer touches.
Liam James is convincing as Duncan, travelling to a holiday house on the Massachusetts coast with his mother (Toni Collette) who has taken up with a divorced father, Trent (Steve Carrell), and Trent’s rather self-centred teenage daughter.
Duncan is sitting in the back of the car when Trent asks him how he would rate himself from one to 10. He tries six.
Duncan is a rather lugubrious-looking boy and is dismayed when his prospective stepfather tells him he thinks he is a three. And it rankles.
At first, the holiday is a disaster for Duncan.
He is supportive of his mother, angry with Trent, putting up with Trent’s daughter.
Then there is the extraverted-off-the-page next-door neighbour (Alison Janney, at her outrageously exuberant best) and her son with a cast in his eye and the somewhat unhappy daughter (AnnaSophia Robb).
They all go into the mix for some very serious episodes and some humorous episodes to offer some balance.
But the best of the comedy and drama takes place at the theme swimming pool, Water Wizz, where Duncan comes across Owen (Sam Rockwell, with the touch of the zany, but with a whole lot of sympathy), who befriends him, helps him work at Water Wizz (without his mother knowing) and the boy comes alive, is not literal in everything he hears, finds friends, including the girl from next door, and opens up to be the boy he could become.
His communication with Owen is very effective, a father-figure when he needs one, not paternalistic but offering sensible advice and affirming him.
But, there are the heavy scenes, especially at the beach, where Trent is exposed as a thoughtless cad, and Duncan, beginning to defend his mother, upbraids her for not standing up for herself and for running away from crises.
Audiences will enjoy various parts of the film depending on whom they are identifying with, the older generation or the younger.
The screenplay highlights the vulnerability of a woman abandoned by her husband, trying to cope with her morose son, and testing the possibilities of a new relationship and being hurt and frustrated by it but not having the courage or the strength to do much about it.
Collette is good at communicating the feelings and frustrations of this character.
It is a surprise to see Steve Carell playing such an obnoxious and fickle character as Trent.
But it is Rockwell who shows how someone ordinary can have the power and the strength of character to enable a sad boy to begin to find himself.
The ending brings some kind of resolution but is still open.
The film was written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.
The former plays Owen’s co-worker at the Water Wizz. Rash plays the entertainingly hypochondriac, Lewis, who is always threatening to leave his kiosk – but doesn’t.
Fr Peter Malone MSC is an associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
